Chrysler announced last that it was firing 13,000 workers and completely shutting down one of its SUV plants in Newark, Delaware. The job cuts represent a 16 percent reduction of Chrysler's production workforce, and about 5,300 of the 13,000 jobs to be cut will be in Michigan.

It has become a tragic comedy to watch one U.S. automaker after another resort to massive layoffs as a "rescue plan." Until recently Chrysler looked like the success story among Detroit's Big Three automakers. Perhaps shedding workers would be more understandable if Chrysler and its American competitors were offering a truly innovative re-design of their business model. Without a doubt, U.S. automakers are saddled with legacy labor agreements that burden their cost structure. But year after year nothing seems to change, and it's the blue-collar worker who must pay the price for a lack of vision in the executive office.

Most of us who consider ourselves world-changers place our personal financial assets into two distinct buckets: investment capital and philanthropy. Investment capital includes money that we put into real estate, pension funds, stocks, bonds, and the like. When we make these investments, we weigh the risk and the potential reward, and balance the two to maximize return. Then we set aside philanthropy dollars to donate to those organizations that we believe in, and hope can make a difference. Most typically we donate our money with a completely different set of criteria than what we used to invest.

During the past year I journeyed to five continents to investigate the rise of the modern slave trade (human trafficking) and explore strategies how to undermine it. In early February HarperSF will publish the results of my investigation in a new book, Not For Sale.

The journey took me beyond a book project, however. What I saw and experienced really got under my skin. I felt a calling to do more than write a book. So along with my colleagues at Right Reality we are launching next month a campaign to end modern slavery. You can see the early stages of a movement that will launch next month here: www.notforsalecampaign.org.

  Just when you thought that the American worker could not get squeezed for any more juice, major retailers have come up with a new cost-savings innovation to apply more pressure on their workforce. Indeed, staffing is the latest area where big retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Payless hope to wring out a few pennies with new operational efficiencies.

Mind you, Wal-Mart and its kin already have been blasted for paying low wages, being miserly with health benefits, and reticent to pay their workers overtime. So how could matters get worse for their employees?